With those six short characters, Matthew Peaslee guessed the correct number of runs the Pirates scored against the Astros this weekend. Matt wins the prediction contest and will be going to see the Pirates take on the Cubs on Social Media Night.

Thanks to everyone who entered. The response was good enough that I may have another contest later this season.

Mr. Peaslee is a sportswriter for The Youngstown Vindicator and has a MLBlog called The Pittsburgh Peas.

Strong pitching and missed opportunities were the story of last night’s game. The Pirates had a runner on third and no outs in the fourth AND bases loaded with no outs in the sixth and failed to score each time. There’s no excuse for not scoring in both situations. Even worse, they completely wasted a top notch start from James McDonald.

No one’s out of the prediction contest yet though. The Pirates highest scoring games this year have been 9, 7 and 6 runs, plus 5 runs five times. Predictions came in between 2 and 16 runs, although last night’s shutout lowers the “sweet spot,” which should have been in the 9-11 range, down to 5-8.

6-4-3 Putout is proud to be teaming up with the Pittsburgh Pirates to give away two tickets to their first Social Media Night of the season. The game is two weeks from today, Friday, May 25 vs the Cubs. Yes, that is a free shirt giveaway night. You can also go to a pre-game reception and recieve an “@Pirates” t-shirt. For more information on “Social Media Night” visit pirates.com/socialmedia.

So how do you win? A simple prediction contest. Just guess how many runs the Pirates score in this weekend’s series versus Houston. One entry per person. All entries must be received by the end of the first inning tonight. If there’s a tie I’ll pick randomly from all winning entries. Just for point of reference the Pirates are scoring 2.87 runs/game this season and 3.44 R/G in May. You can enter the contest in the comments below, through email or via twitter (either @RDavidK or @643Putout). Be sure to include the best way to reach you if you win.

I’ll announce the winner Monday morning. If you send me a pic of yourself from the game I’ll include it in the blog. Good luck to all!

Update 7:22pm: The first inning is complete and entries are now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Sunday update: To everyone who entered my prediction contest: If today’s game is rained out the contest will be extended through the next game played. Everyone’s guess was based on three games being played so it only seems fair.